Hi everyone! Welcome to today's webinar on big ideas for social impact.
As many of you know, creating any business is very challenging
but in particular perhaps one of the most challenging types of businesses to make
is one that is focused on social impact
So today we will be hearing from four of this year's Cartier Women's Initiative Awards finalists
about how they went about building their businesses for social impact
and hopefully that will give you some ideas on how to get started with yours
So introducing this year's Cartier Awards finalists, we are going to start with Melissa from Cameroon
who is going to tell us about hers. Melissa, go ahead.
Hello! my name is Melissa. And I'm the CEO and Founder of Infiuss
Infiuss is an online blood bank
and our mission is to help patients and hospitals have access to blood
because there is a huge shortage of blood in Cameroon
and people are not able to have access to life-saving blood whenever they need it
So our main objective is to ensure that we connect patients and hospitals to have access to blood
Over to you, Paloma
Hi everybody! I'm Paloma Farias. I'm the CEO and Founder of La Fabrica Alegre
We are based in Chile in South America
Our mission is to democratize the access to the internet of things
particularly in the area of agriculture
so people can grow more food
But also they can build their own sensor solutions if they want to
So one to Paula
Thank you. My name is Paula Gomez
I am the CEO and Founder of Epistemic
And our product is devised to warn patients with epilepsy in advance of an incoming seizure
So they can take necessary measures to protect themselves
So our vision is to give autonomy to patients with epilepsy
Hello everyone! My name is Dr. YiDing Yu
I am the founder of Twiage
Twiage helps ambulances to communicate in real time to hospitals
so that hospitals and doctors are more prepared for these patients
My vision is to transform emergency response
so that we can accelerate life-saving care for patients having heart attacks, strokes
and sepsis and trauma around the world
Thank you so much everyone for sharing these really inspiring stories
and congratulations to you all for being selected this year as Cartier Women's Initiative Awards finalists
I like to drill down and learn more about these challenges that you are trying to overcome
and personally what I found in building our business
what we do is we convert plastic waste into different products like fuels
is often you can have this big idea for social impact
but it's very hard to convert solving a major social problem
into something that is actually, that someone is willing to pay for
and something that makes a viable business
So I'd like to hear from some of you about how did you get started
in trying to go from this big social problem that you are trying to solve
to something that actually could become a business
with a viable product that someone was willing to pay for
So maybe to start that off
YiDing, would you like to tell us how were you able to go from the idea of solving this issue
to actually finding someone who is willing to pay for it
and make a business out of it
Thank you, Priyanka
It was an incredibly long journey to start
I came across this idea
When I realized how outdated our radio systems in the United States were
and I realized that it wasn't just in the city of Boston which is actually very technically savvy
and well connected city
and a well funded city
but it was a case here both in the United States and around the world
The only way that a patient who is coming to the hospital
was to communicate over public radio waves
In some areas there is no early communication at all
So patients simply arrive without any name
without any past medical record
without EKG for heart attack
And that means doctors like me were really in a black box until patients arrive
and we have hours-long waits to get seen
our resources are tight
and yet for many of these patients
every second matters
When I heard about this problem without we being dealing with it for decades
It has to be fixed
Radios were certainly not evolved to solve that problem any more
Our thought kind of entirely being outside the market
was to say why can't we just do this securely with smart phones
The challenge was of course if radios are free and public
how do you create a business for people willing to pay for an alternative
And that was a long journey to really realize that
how to find a great pair for this
We encourage other people to spend a lot of time talking to every stakeholder in the system
What we heard really early on
was that the problem was big
everybody suffers
The patients suffer, the ambulance providers suffer, physicians and nurses suffer
hospitals get penalized for poor outcomes
yet everybody looks at the problem and said well no one has a solution
This is too big. Governments run radios
I can't fix this
I think we first realized that the need was huge
that many people did suffer from this
and yet no one has come together to solve it
As we explore this we found people who really heard and resonated with our pain points
We found an initial hospital in Boston called South Shore Hospital
they just feel that this is the future
They said we are going to do it now, it's just going to happen in the next couple of years
and they want to be part of that future
they really helped us iterate our initial idea
they helped us understand how we were transforming it
We realized that while Twiage really helps patients
we need to find someone who has the dollars
to make a business sense
For us, that's been hospitals
because hospitals suffer from long wait times, inefficiency
they get penalized for poor outcomes
and in truth when Twiage is used we have saved 14 minutes per patient
and that means a lot more hours per day that you can use towards seeing new patients
and also faster care for the patients that you are seeing for
and that really makes business sense for hospitals
That's really how we leveraged that to grow and become a really viable business
Thank you so much for sharing that story
That's really a great example
of how you can go from this big problem
to trying to really look at the market and figure out who is your early adopter
That's something that every business needs to figure out who is going to be your early adopter
who has that vision that you have and who's going to pay
Great. And Paula do you want to talk a little bit about your experience of that?
OK
So what is the problem here that we are solving
Patients with epilepsy they can get really hurt
and sometimes there is even death
so that is a very big problem
What happens in their lives is
since they don't know when a seizure will come
they stop doing certain activities because they can get hurt
Sports mainly but many people don't drive, many people don't ride a bike
many children stay at home and don't play with their friends
And there is a lot of stigma too
So many people cannot work
because they would have a seizure at work
their bosses can get really scared
and get scared of being so because if the person has an accident at work
the boss can get sued
So the thing is
how we solve this problem
Well if you can tell them in advance that they will have a seizure
they can go back to doing all those things
and stop only at the moment of the seizure
so that was the biggest idea
And the thing was to give them quality of life
and lead a life that was
near two hours
Another thing is
they depend a lot on caregivers
and we think people's life to be more independent
If they are warned beforehand
and we also warn the caregivers
they can be more autonomous
and that's pretty nice for the patients
So we started talking to a lot of people
Now the question is
Who is paying for all of this
One thing is development and the other thing is the product
For the product, we've made a lot of research
We know there are early adopters
they can buy the product
and if they have a better social condition
they can buy the product and be the first ones
But we know that people don't spend so much money on health as they do on other things
that's almost unbelievable but it's true
So what we've done is to prove that the healthcare system
will spend less with the product, less preventing than fixing
and then we can sell the product to healthcare government agencies
and insurances
Thank you for telling your story
I think the common thing here is you just have to start talking to people
to figure out
You can't sit in your room and try to figure out these problems
You have to really talk to all the stakeholders
and figure out who is going to be the ultimate customer
And Paloma do you want to share a bit about your experience for this
Yes for us it was a little bit difference because
Not different but it was a product that I needed personally
as a little farmer
but also an engineer
So when I could not find that product
I decided to build it
for me
It wasn't thought of as a business
So I think I didn't have to go look for the market
in that sense
I knew I was the market
But from there once it's transformed into a business
I went out and we've done interviews
hundreds of different types of farmers
different types of growers
basically anybody who is sitting in a cab
and I just started interrogating them
about their habits and how they go about it
But I think as you said the most important is just talk to everybody
even if they are not even in your market
people sometimes have insights
and don't leave nothing unturned
That's really good advice
I think the common thing here is
the reasons these social problems exist
is because there is no easy solution
that's why it does take a lot of work
to talk to people, to figure how who are the stakeholders
because the reason these problems evolved
is because there is no efficient market
we as innovators have to figure out
how can we innovate to make the market respond
to this problem
It's really a matter of connecting the dots
Next I would like to move on to some of the challenges
you guys have faced
in building these businesses
whether it's from skeptics
I'm sure there is a whole range of challenges you've all faced
especially in different geographies
and what that represent
So maybe Melissa could you get started on some of the challenges you've faced
and a little bit about how you overcome them
Yeah that has actually been some of
We have really had to struggle a lot because
The time when I started Infiuss
here in Cameroon
it was when there were a lot of socio-political instabilities in the country
And I was building a digital solution
and I would even not have internet connection
because they had to cut off the internet
they had to cut certain parts of the country
off from the internet
That was the first major challenge that we had
trying to build a digital solution
in an economy that was very restricted
as far as internet connectivity
and all of that kind of stuff was involved
So we had to find a way to navigate around all of that
to realize that ok, we have to build a digital solution
but we have to make sure that the users or the people had to benefit from this solution
they don't necessary have to have an internet connection
to benefit from our solution
It was really important for us to do that
because if we had built a completely digital solution
it would be impossible for us to have users
So when we navigated that
that was the first difficulty that we had to overcome
The second one was trying to talk to people about the problem
You are here trying to solve a problem that has existed for a very long time
and they don't even feel like there is a need for a solution to that problem
but here you are coming and bringing them a solution
and you have to start changing their mindset
that you can solve the problem from a different approach
I remember I was actually talking to my mother
about what I was doing
and she responded to me, she said
so of everything you can do
you choose to sell blood
So it's something that we really had to
work on educating people, changing stereotypes, letting people know it's just blood
it's really not that big a deal
It was hard
And finding a sustainable and scalable model
I think that is something that everybody really has to struggle with
because you have an idea
but now finding the right product market
and trying to just find the best way that you can sell your problem
you can sell your product out there
that was something that we really had to work a lot with
But over time, you just realize that
wherever there's a problem
you just need to find a solution
and you will get around it and you just get pushing and pushing
Those are really some of the few problems that we really had to deal with
starting this venture
I'm so moved by Melissa's story
because I think it's such an amazing story
I've benefited from having a very stable internet connection
and I think about women around the world who are building companies
in much harder environments
I am so inspired
by people like you Melissa
Also something that really resonated with me
what Melissa said
sometimes even the people who are most supportive of you
question what we are doing
Being an entrepreneur and a founder can be really lonely
Because you could be in the valley of death
where your company might go bankrupt
everything is going wrong
You have people who are like why do you do this
For me they are like you are a doctor why don't you just practice
You can make a whole lot more money just being a doctor
You are trying to salvage or build a product
And it takes so much work
and belief in yourself
and that's so critical
It's ok to have these moments of doubt
but realizing being the most passionate person you can about solving the problem
For us at Twiage
So much was just changing the status quo
It's going to be the theme that we hear again and again
which is that social problems have existed for a long time
and many people are very comfortable with how the current system works
It's not because they think necessarily that
the current system is perfect
but they are just resistant to change
So many people just love the radio
They love the radio for great reasons
it's free
When the internet goes down
most of the time the radio still works
so they are thinking about the apocalypse
But it doesn't work if every day we are trying to coordinate care for
in a high functioning system
I do not call my friends on the radio
because we have better technology now
that's more reliable
That's something that I realized
Getting people to change their mind about that
We actually function in a voluntary market
So we tell people when we go live that you can use the radio
That's ok
If you want to do what you've always done
That's fine
But what we are going to show you instead
is that if you use our platform
it's faster
you are able to send better information
you get instant feedback from the doctors
And when you arrive at the hospital
your patient has a room assigned
your patients are already registered
and you go directly into the room instead of waiting at the desk for a room assignment
And when they start seeing
that the ambulance that came by next to them
that used Twiage saved 14 minutes and they have to wait in line in the old school way
It was a transformation, an adoption, an uptake that didn't require our direct marketing
they just saw the benefits
So one lesson I would take away from that
it's so important to make sure that there is a direct benefit to every single stakeholder
every single end user
even if they are not paying for it
Our paramedics and EMTs use Twiage for free
But to get them buy it we need to make sure they loved our product
because they can always pick up a radio
and now we have about 90% adoption whenever we use
when we give our products to ambulances
I think there's a lot about how much they love what we do
The other thing that I would quickly touch on is legitimacy
Sometimes you are starting out
You are new into the market
There's a lot of people who have been here for 20 years
they are more likely the people who say I don't if the thing could change
So they may think I'm naive, I'm too young to know the answer
I can't possibly come in and solve it
There's a bunch of ways to address that obviously
But I think doing the research, really understanding and
answering all their doubts with a smile
and being tenacious about getting to the core
Even people who didn't necessarily respect my expertise in this area
respected my passion for solving a problem
and that win a lot of people over
So I use that as a piece of advice for people who have troubles
they are like I am going to solve this problem
and when people doubt you
That's really excellent advice YiDing
Thanks for sharing that
I think it's a really great point that not only when you are challenging the status quo
not only do you need to talk the talk
This is the vision of the future
but by showing people
and in your example
showing that the ambulances that are coming so much sooner
than other ones that aren't using the service
When it's right there between their eyes
That's how you go from ok you've got those early adopters
but that's how the rest of the market can then catch up and see ok these guys are doing it
It happens with every innovation and breakthrough
When we moved from the horse to the car
there's all this push back
we need to keep using horses
Once people on their horses saw the cars coming by
It was just like the early adopters
you saw them going by and that makes so much more sense
So in a lot of the time
it's not just about talking about your vision
but just sort of doing it
and demonstrating it with that early adopter
and everyone catches on
ok this makes sense
I think that's really great advice
for everyone who's overcoming challenges
in their startups
So next we will hear from Paula
Paula about your main challenges that you've faced
Well we are not in a selling phase yet
because our product takes a long time to develop
so we have six months to do our last version of the product
and start trials
So I'll tell you some of the challenges before sales
We also live in a country that has poor resources
Not very poor
So in Brazil it's very hard to convince people about a business
that is not immediate
Startups here they have very short time to market products
and that was very different
So that was one of the challenges
We needed to get funded
and we went about this problem going through government grants
for research
that was one thing
The other thing was convincing
stakeholders that our method would really work
because this research has been done for the last 30 years
and nobody found the solution
so how can we find a solution here in Brazil? It's impossible
So we started going to international conferences
talking to people abroad
and when we started getting support abroad too
we now have convinced more people here
That really resonates with everyone
I think there is this perception which is very strange that
if something hasn't been solved before, it's not solvable
which is completely ridiculous
because obviously there are so many things
that need to be constantly solved as a society
It doesn't really matter where you are sitting in the world
you can solve that
There are so many things that haven't been solved
because things like market failure
just people not having the passion to do it
that shouldn't really hold you back
I think the main thing is just proving people wrong
As YiDing mentioned showing your genuine passion
for what you are trying to solve
and just really coming across is an expert in it
establishing that credibility
all these things
are ways of pushing back on these skeptics and doubters who are like
who challenge you
Paloma did you want to share a little bit about your experience as well?
I just wanted to say something about it
that we build physical products
that are technological
and in South America people were like you cannot do that
Nobody does that
and everybody expects profits
within very little time
so it's really challenging
to build hardware from a little bit less developed place
But like Paula I think when people don't listen here
we go to other places
We went to the United States
Europe
Once you get a little bit more attention from there
Then people tell you well, maybe
maybe you are on to something
I'm so happy that other people are building physical stuff
that are technological in South America
That's a great point about geography
And the great thing about the Cartier network
is that you are going to meet people from all over the world
and see how these applications can be applied in other geographies
and maybe there are early adopters in other places that you are not aware of
You are going to enjoy getting together and meeting each other very soon
So let's move on to
One of the challenges with social impact businesses
is how do you measure success
So Melissa do you want to tell us a little bit about your company
and how you go about measuring success for yourself
So with social businesses
unlike when you are building a capitalist business
it's easy to say that I'm not going to measure success in terms of financial gain
because when you are starting a social business
the real problem you are setting out to do is to solve a problem
not really for the financial gain that is going to come of solving this problem
So it's really important that you always try to stay true to who you are
So for us at Infiuss
Success to us is
how many people get back and say thank you
I was not able to find and access blood
and thanks to your team
and your platform I was able to access this
Success to us is referral
Word of mouth referral
If you are able to tell somebody go tell your friend, that is success to us
Success to us is recognition
We are sitting here in Cameroon
we are having Cartier Women's Initiative coming out and saying
look you are doing a good job
we want to support you
that is really just what success means to us
Even though it takes a lot of time for you to see financial gains and everything
just this feeling that you are actually creating a difference
drives us and makes us come here every day and do what we do
So that is really just what success means to us here
That's wonderful
When you have a social impact business
it's not just about defining success of the bottom line
there's a lot of these intangible things
that satisfaction
of really solving a problem
having people referring your business to others
Things that you are really proud about
Anyone else who want to add to that
on how you evolve your thinking, how you define success for yourself
I know that sometimes when you are in the education world
in school you define success with grades
In the business world, you can just focus on money
but sometimes with social impact you have to think a little bit about
other ways of just defining success
And one question we've received
coming in here is
how sustainable is this idea for relying only on your passion
driving you
Are there other things that have evolved over time as well that drive you
Does anyone want to touch on that?
Yeah, I will jump in on that
I think for me, I'm in the healthcare space
and as a doctor
it seems like if we just improve patient outcomes or improve quality
people should pay for that right?
Unfortunately, that's actually not true
Everybody says you've improved the quality of your care
Everybody wants that but
The dollars or the check went in quickly for that challenge
So we quickly realized that while everybody verbally said they cared about quality
they weren't willing to give us money or pay for our system
and so they needed a different incentive
and that was kind of a reality check for us
There is both the mission
and then also how do we quickly get to the metrics of really matter to some of our clients
We never said that our clients don't care about the quality
They absolutely do
Just they have other urgent business needs and you have to figure out
how they are going to allocate their own budgets
So we had to be really smart about that
We then went back to the drawing board
and really understood what was the value
how can we measure our efficiency
We did studies to really get to the dollar, the amount of the return on investment
because we are trying to be a profitable business
I think social impact businesses can be incredibly successful
So we do look at things as the bottom line
We do look at things like the return on investment
Our view of that is that
if our clients get a major return on investment
it means we are delivering something that is really valuable to them
and the more impact I can have there, the actual the more downstream impact I can have on patients
Twiage now has hopped over nearly 100 000 patients
get faster medical care and so
We spend so much energy on our team ensuring that our clients love using the product
so that they choose Twiage over standard care all the time
and the adoption rates are high
because the adoption rates are high
and they are happy
they actually use it with more patients
and therefore more patients benefit
You kind of have this tier of looking at all these metrics
and we track our client acquisition
in terms of hospitals
we track ambulance acquisition
and we track patient volume
because all of those mean that we are doing the right thing
we are not just selling
but when we sell, our product is actually giving value
To the question about relying only on passion
I would frame it a little bit differently
I think you have to have passion
but it's not as sufficient
This is a really hard role to be a founder
It's very difficult to do
I have definitely not done it alone
I would say I have passion for what I do because when I feel that I am about to give up
or I feel so hard to move forward
I feel like I just hit a wall
the fire in your belly is what keeps you going
If you didn't feel so passionate, you might give up at that moment
and that could be a missed opportunity
If you are going to dedicate hours and hours of your life
or you can just give up the opportunity and do something else
you should be so passionate
about what that is for you
Because you will get it through, you will get yourself through the hard days
But there are so many other things that you need
You need support for loved ones and family say
You believe in this and I believe in you
You need team members who complement your skillset
and can help you out throughout the process
You might need funders and investors who again would be willing to put capital behind you
In this amount of actual work that goes into actually running and scaling a company
It's that you just have to have passion
If you are passionate about what you are doing
more people are likely to invest in you
more people are likely to join your team
because they are inspired by you
So I think it's the start of where it is but not the whole package
I know that really resonates
The idea of the fire in your belly
that sort of always there
and there's going to be plenty of things that you have to do as a founder
that you just don't enjoy
For instance I was here past 11 PM last night
working through a legal agreement
talking through on the phone
having to dissect every word
that's something that I don't really enjoy
but it's something that I just have to do
as part of my job
And there's plenty of those little things
that I don't enjoy about the job
You just have to understand it's all just necessary
and part of getting to where you want to go
It's really that concept of the fire in your belly
And I think as you pointed out
having people around is just really important
because there's going to be tough times
you need to have people around you who just keep you going
even if some days you are just like why am I doing this
This particular task that is very frustrating
Thank you for sharing that
So some people argue that social businesses can never achieve the profitability and scale
of big corporations like Apple and Google
I'd like to get some ideas about this
I think Paloma you had some thoughts about this concept
Do you think social impact businesses
can become big, sustainable, global corporations?
Absolutely
I think it's proven too
I think we even have more advantages
than some other traditional businesses
Our story is much stronger
And I think people relay to that today
Of course the story is not the most important part
but it is who we are
it's why we do it
I think that translates and gives us communication channels with our customers, our allies
I think that also makes our customers or users more than just somebody that we sell stuff to
they are fans and allies
For us, even though we are selling something that is a prototype
so it comes with a little bit of flaws
a little bit of tweaking
I hate that
But I've also noticed that I thought the customers would hate it
but that's not the case
they are like don't worry, we will fix like they are part of something else
I think that's so much stronger than if we went out there
and we're a big corporation and that only had a profitable mind
that we are doing something together
So yes, absolutely, I think we have advantages
For me it's also
having a business is a platform
it's like a way of showing the world that this is also how you can do it
I don't know, I think it's very powerful
Definitely social businesses I think are the future
we can even make more money
than the rest of them
I think that's a great point
I think the world is evolving
from the mindset of the traditional corporation
and in the age we are living with social media, creating greater transparency
people are really thinking about what impact are we going to have
and want to be associated with brands that are making a difference
and want to live a meaningful life
I think there are a lot of opportunities there
Perhaps we are moving to a world where businesses of the future
will look very different from the businesses of the past
Even how we define success will be different
The greater transparency now
It's not enough to be just this sort of big corporation
You can be so easily, so heavily scrutinized obviously as a big company
We have seen Facebook in the past week
You have to really show that you are adding value
to people's lives in a meaningful way
I definitely agree that the mindset is shifting on that
Does anyone else want to add to this point
about social impact businesses
being able to be as impactful as big corporations and as profitable even?
I really want to emphasize on the fact that
I strongly believe that social impact businesses
can be as profitable and as large as a lot of traditional corporations
because if you even look at every corporation
you will always see that there is a tiny aspect of social good in everything that people are doing
No matter what it is
Even if it proves out to be very financially profitable
For you to start a business
whether it's a traditional business or whatever
you have to start out by solving somebody's problem
even if it's just an exchange of goods and services
I give you my money
is because I have a need
you have something that I want
I think the whole problem with social businesses
we just take a longer time
to get to that point
We need a lot more resources
We take longer
and everything like that
But I really strongly believe that social businesses have the ability to
be like big, profitable businesses in the future
OK, I wanted to add that
the businesses that you are mentioning like Google and Apple and things like that
they are also starting to get involved in social businesses
So if they weren't profitable
they wouldn't get into it
I think that's a great point
I think these big corporations realize how important it is
to nowadays
It was very different 20 years ago
to get away with not ever talking about any social impact
I think now they realize that it's just a matter of surviving in the market
that they have to be showing their value
to society as a whole
otherwise consumers can easily take them down overnight
There's been some examples
There's been some scandals that broke out
and people just don't want to be associated with that brand anymore
That can just kill a business overnight
I think that's a great point
One of the challenges is that
the way that the stock market is set up
is just very short-term focused
And obviously in order to create a real social impact business
you have to be very long-term focused
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